Pragmatic Semiconductor has won the RFID Product Gold Prize at the IOTE 2026 Innovative Product Awards, the awards programme attached to the International Internet of Things Exhibition in Shenzhen. The Cambridge-based company, which designs and manufactures ultra-thin flexible integrated circuits, was recognised in August 2026 for its NFC product portfolio: NFC Connect PR1301 and NFC Protect PR1311.
IOTE has now run for 25 editions and is one of the larger IoT and RFID trade events in Asia. The 2026 show ran from 26 to 28 August 2026 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Bao’an District, with the Innovative Product Awards judged across several hardware categories.
What the winning chips do
NFC, or near field communication, is a short range branch of HF RFID operating at 13.56 MHz, and it is what makes tap-to-read smartphone interactions work. Both award winning products run at that frequency and both present as NFC Forum Type 5 tags, the tag type built on ISO/IEC 15693, rather than the ISO/IEC 14443 route used by contactless payment cards. Our RFID glossary covers those terms in plain English.
NFC Connect PR1301, launched in March 2025, is a read-only chip carrying a pre-encoded unique identifier plus 96 bytes of user memory, with a data transfer rate of 26.48 kbps. It is specified for single or double sided aluminium antennas of 22 mm diameter or larger and suits paper or plastic inlays. Pragmatic positions it for consumer engagement, product authentication, traceability and digital product passports.
NFC Protect PR1311, added to the range in June 2026, is the tamper evidence part. Rather than bolting on a separate sensor, the chip inserts a dynamic byte into its NFC payload whose value changes when the seal is broken, so a single smartphone tap returns both the item identity and whether the pack has been opened, with no battery in the tag. Pragmatic aims it at categories where refilling and counterfeiting are expensive problems, including spirits, pharmaceuticals, beauty, baby food and pet food.
Why flexible chips matter here
FlexIC is Pragmatic’s name for its flexible integrated circuit platform. Instead of etching transistors into a rigid silicon wafer, the process builds metal-oxide thin-film transistors onto a flexible polyimide substrate at comparatively low process temperatures. The result is a chip thin and pliable enough to sit inside a paper label or wrap round a curved bottle without a detectable lump, made by a route the company says uses less water and energy and fewer harmful chemicals than conventional silicon. That combination is what the award cited: intelligence embedded almost anywhere, at high volume, with a lower carbon cost.
Pragmatic was founded in 2010 and manufactures at Pragmatic Park in County Durham, home to the UK’s first 300 mm wafer fab, formally opened in 2024. It raised $231 million in a Series D round in 2023, at the time the largest semiconductor venture funding round raised in Europe. The commercial proof point came in March 2026, when Avery Dennison, one of the world’s largest suppliers of RFID and NFC inlays, announced the first mass scale integration of the PR1301 into a commercial inlay portfolio.
A Chinese brand identity and a China push
Alongside the award, Pragmatic used IOTE Shenzhen 2026 to introduce a Chinese brand identity, Pragmatic 湃, and to run customer and partner demonstrations of connected packaging, product authentication and item-level intelligence.
“Connected products are a critical tool for brand trust, product authentication and protection, and consumer engagement,” said James Davey, SVP Sales, Business Development and Product Management at Pragmatic Semiconductor. “We are pleased to showcase our customer and partner innovations which demonstrate how flexible semiconductor technology can help brands expand market opportunities and connect the physical and digital worlds.”
“With our award-winning NFC product portfolio, expanding partner ecosystem, and new dual brand, we are deepening our commitment to customers in China while continuing to scale our global business,” Davey added.
More on chips, inlays and tags of this kind sits in our smart packaging and HF hubs.
Read more at https://www.pragmaticsemi.com/pragmatic-awarded-rfid-product-gold-prize-at-iote-2026-innovation-awards/
